OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Double dose of Keystone pipeline

Environmental groups will release a report Tuesday attacking a State analysis that found the project would not substantially affect the rate of oil sands development one way or another.

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The groups’ analysis of greenhouse gas emissions related to the project is “far greater” than State estimates, the groups said.

“It is the linchpin for tripling development of tar sands oil, which would significantly worsen climate change,” an advisory states.

Oil Change International, Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, 350.org Environment America, Greenpeace, the National Wildlife Federation and Friends of the Earth are releasing the report.More Keystone: A portion of Rep. Lee Terry’s (R-Neb.) bill – which has 100 co-sponsors – to approve Keystone falls under the purview of the House Natural Resources Committee, which will hold a subcommittee hearing on it Tuesday.

A number of Capitol Hill committees will explore the White House fiscal 2014 budget plan throughout the week.

Among Tuesday’s sessions: a House Appropriations Committee subpanel will review the Transportation Department’s budget proposal, which includes money to help communities prepare for climate change.

NEWS BITES:

BP manager takes stand at spill trial

The Associated Press reports from New Orleans on the civil trial over BP’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. From their story:

A BP team leader who supervised managers on the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 testified Monday that he was frustrated by last-minute changes to the drilling project, but didn't have any safety concerns before the deadly blast.

Enviro news organization nabs Pulitzer

InsideClimate News reporters Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting Monday for their series on U.S. oil pipeline safety.

The reporting team began its eventual Pulitzer-winning endeavor with a seven-month investigation of a 2010 oil spill in the Kalamazoo River in western Michigan. It then expanded into a broader evaluation of regulation of the nation’s energy infrastructure, InsideClimate News said on its website.

The Pulitzer committee lauded the trio’s “rigorous reports on flawed regulation of the nation’s oil pipelines, focusing on potential ecological dangers posed by diluted bitumen (or ‘dilbit’), a controversial form of oil.”

That oil is what the Keystone XL pipeline would carry from Canada to the Gulf Coast — if the White House approves the project.

Click here for the stories that earned InsideClimate News its Pulitzer.